Average American watches almost 33 hours of television each week

The average American watched traditional television for an average of 32 hours and 47 minutes a week according to a recent Nielsen research report entitled “State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report 2011.”

The ratings giant said that American Seniors (Adults 65+) watched the most television, a whopping 46 hours and 16 minutes per week, followed by adults 50-64 who watched 41 hours per week.

Teenagers who are often accused of watching too much television watched an average of 22 hours and 24 minutes per week.

In addition to watching plenty of traditional television, researchers say Americans spent almost four hours a week cruising the internet in 2011, two hours and 21 minutes a week watching pre-recorded television, 27 minutes watching video on the internet and 7 minutes a week watching video on a mobile device.

Add it all up and that is about 40 hours a week in front of a television or computer screen.

While internet usage continues to grow TV maintains its stronghold as the most popular device in American households, with 290 million Americans and 114.7 households owning at least one. Incredibly, almost one in three U.S. TV households – 35.9 million – owns four or more televisions.

According to the Television Bureau of Canada website, the average Canadian watches about 27 hours per week of traditional television with Adults 55+ watching the most at 37.4 hours per week and kids and teens watching the least at about 21 hours per week.